If Drug Firm's Star Falls,
Does Anyone Hear It?

Companies Can Be Tight-Lipped
When Hot Prospects Fail, Leaving
Investors to Deduce Their Fate

By

Scott Hensley and

Peter Landers Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated Feb. 24, 2004 12:01 a.m. ET

When it comes to their research, drug companies tend to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.

In its 2001 annual report, for instance, Pfizer Inc. boasted about a new drug in the lucrative depression field. It said the drug, called CP-122,721, "offers strong efficacy with fewer of the side effects" seen in existing antidepressants.

The drug made a cameo appearance at an investor meeting July 17, 2002,...